


Still Falling for You

by BrightYellowBumblebee



Series: Somebody to Love [3]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hospital, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Catra: just here to drink tea and watch chaos and I'm all out of tea, F/M, Meet-Cute, Mermista: he's an idiot and he's MINE, Ragging on orthopaedic surgeons; for dramatic effect, Sea Hawk: hopless but adorable
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:15:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27642650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrightYellowBumblebee/pseuds/BrightYellowBumblebee
Summary: Mermista (sees Sea Hawk): what an idiotSea Hawk (sees Mermista): falls down stairsaka: the Seamista meeting mentioned in "Would I Lie to You?"
Relationships: Mermista/Sea Hawk (She-Ra)
Series: Somebody to Love [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1962157
Comments: 16
Kudos: 52





	Still Falling for You

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all, 
> 
> Life is KICKING my ARSE right now and so, updates are much much slower than usual. Also, corona can go suck my metaphorical member and anyone who doesn't believe in it is welcome to shadow me on my shifts.
> 
> Sorry, needed to vent. 
> 
> Anywho, here's the latest installment of Somebody to Love and, surprisingly for me, it's not Catradora centric O.O

Grand Rounds were something to be endured, Mermista thought, and not enjoyed for pleasure. She’d managed to grab a minute in between her morning and afternoon lists and, after trawling her way through her locker in disgust, she realised she’d forgotten her lunch. She had twelve pens and her stethoscope -last worn a year ago and last used in her Foundation rotations- and a very, very _very_ battered copy of an anaesthesia journal that had been carried everywhere in her handbag but never opened. But no lunch.

Sighing deeply, she ran her hand through her turquoise hair, ruffled from its braid from a morning under her theatre cap and glanced down at her scrubs. If she wanted food from the canteen, she’d have to change and she really didn’t want to do that. She’d even shoulder keeping her “Hi, my name is Mermista!” badge on, complete with smiley face even though she wanted to punch herself in the face whenever she caught glimpse of the bright yellow plastic in the mirror. She’d come to work today in her jeans and flip-flops and had zero desire for anyone to see her in normal clothes. For some reason, people tended to think that her being in her jeans and not her scrubs meant she wanted to have a conversation. 

She didn’t. She was as approachable in her jeans as she was in her scrubs and her interest in small talk was as large as her interest in football: non-existent. Given that she was on cardiothoracics all day and the new registrar, Catra, was making her cycle between laughter and apoplectic rage, she held no qualms about informing everyone of her disinterest. 

But there was no alternative for food that would let her stay in her scrubs, except to go to Grand Rounds. A frustrated moan left her darkly painted lips; today’s Rounds were being presented by the orthopaedic surgeons so, she wouldn’t be surprised if they’d forgotten to cater it and did their presentations in crayon. 

“Hey Mermista,” Catra called, still in her scrubs as well, her heterochromic eyes twinkling, “you coming to Grand Rounds?” Her mouth held a mocking smirk and she dragged her own theatre cap from her wild mane of hair. 

“We might even get a show with lunch, if the projector isn’t set up already. Do you think they’ll break out the Langenbacks and mallets if it isn’t?” 

Mermista loosed an answering smile to her; this here was why she was simultaneously a little in love with and straight up about to strangle the surgeon. Their senses of humour were so similar that they were synchronised but, to Mermista, she was still a surgeon, which was irredeemable. 

Still, solidarity in ripping into orthopaedic surgeons. 

They shuffled over to the Postgraduate Centre, their theatre clogs squeaking on the linoleum flooring as they exchanged catty comments about the new Mess President, Glitter or something, and made it to the lecture theatre just as the pizza delivery was leaving. 

Jackpot! Mermista was delighted; whoever had organised this week’s Rounds, not only had they remembered food but they had ordered one of the main food groups. She might abstain from insulting them for this. 

She might even _smile_ at them for this. 

Scrounging up a paper plate and napkin, Mermista loaded it with pizza, sending silent thanks up to every deity she believed in and many she didn’t for the fact that whoever was in charge for today’s Rounds had some folds in their brain and weren’t the typical orthopaedic surgeon in the cave. 

She bundled herself to a seat in the back, pulling her phone out of her pocket to check her messages. ‘Great,’ she thought, ‘rota changes again,’ as she noted that she’d been moved for her afternoon session. Her cardiothoracics list had been changed to orthopaedics and she wasn’t sure how she felt about that. 

On the one hand, she got to avoid Catra for the afternoon, since she was chaos personified and prolonged exposure was directly contributing to Mermista’s ulcer (and her small crush but no-one would _ever_ know that), but on the other hand: orthopaedic surgeons. Sometimes, orthopaedic surgeons were like children and getting a list running smoothly was akin to herding a pack of cats. With hammers. And smaller brains. And fewer communication skills. 

Her resting bitch face was set to perpetual “unimpressed-ness” so none of her thoughts showed even when Catra threw herself into a chair three down from her. 

“Afternoon Mermista!” came the chirpy voice of Perfuma. She had shared Undergraduate with Perfuma, mirroring her rotations closely to the point that they’d become unlikely friends. Looking at them, they weren’t a pair that would seem to be friends, given Mermista’s constant dour outlook and Perfuma’s malignant optimism, but they somehow made it work. 

“Hi Perfuma,” she droned back, her eyes never leaving her phone. Perfuma didn’t take her dismissive tone personally though, breezily sitting next to her, her floral perfume wafting over to Mermista. 

“So,” the psychiatrist said, picking delicately at her kale salad, “have you been called to A&E recently?” Mermista spared a sidewards glance towards her, darkly stained lips curling in amusement as her eyes twinkled with mischief. 

“Maybe. Why?” 

“Oh, no reason,” her brown eyes darted to the side as her freckled cheeks blushed heavily. “Seen anything interesting?” 

Mermista smiled internally, even if her face remained stoic and stony. Sorry Perfuma, you let yourself in for this by showing weakness. 

“Hmmm? Anything, Perfuma?” Mermista lived for these moments, for the chance to drag her friends and it showed in her glittering dark eyes. “Or anyone?” Perfuma’s cheeks were the same shade as her shirt now, a lurid pink colour that was darkening by the second. 

Pizza and a show, Mermista was glad she didn’t skip Rounds today. Orthopaedics hadn’t even started yet and it was already better than any lunch the cafeteria could offer. 

As Perfuma hemmed and hawed, stuttering over her non-existent words, the subject of their conversation strode in, ducking her head to get through the doors and Perfuma’s mainframe glitched. Scorpia always had a slightly flustered look on her face, as though her existence was a reason to be embarrassed and Perfuma thought it lovely. 

Mermista scoffed at their puppy love, whilst secretly snapping pictures to upload onto her social media accounts. Heavens above, she wasn’t going to post anything about _herself_ on there. 

(If she was a smidgen jealous, well, that would never be expressed. She knew she was prickly to be around, an “acquired taste” some would call her and something as innocent and cute as a crush seemed to be off the cards for her. Whatever. It’s not like it _bothered_ her or anything.) 

Scorpia shouldered her way to Catra’s side, her plate covered in pizza slices with a single piece of salad on the side, almost as a token offering to her body as something healthy. For medical professionals, they were notoriously incapable of self-care in any form. The buff emergency medic sat down next to her friend, a bright smile on her face. Due to Catra’s proximity to Mermista, she was also sitting quite closely to Perfuma and Scorpia’s cheeks began to take on a dusting of blush as well. 

They were hopeless and it was depressingly adorable. Mermista was sure she was going to develop a crush by sheer proximity to the amount of serotonin around the pair. 

The lecture theatre was beginning to fill now, all specialities joining together for the presentation (and pizza. Mostly for the pizza). Mermista saw Shimmer come in with her hunky paediatrician friend who had the delicious forearms. Or were they more than friends? She was never quite sure what they were. 

She wasn’t sure _they_ knew either. They bundled themselves off to one side, Glitter-Shimmer-What’s her name glaring daggers into Catra’s head. Their loud bust up had happened only a week ago and egos were still bruised. Mermista was still buying lunches off the money she’d made on that bet; she’d had to split it with Juliet but, worth it. 

Out of the corner of her eye, just as the lights were beginning to dim for the presentation to start, Mermista saw Entrapta squirrel herself inside, under her preferred cloak of darkness. She shuffled to the pizza, grabbing a couple of slices and then popped up on their row, silent and sneaky and causing Catra a small heart attack as she apparated into the chair next to her. 

"Entrapta! Don’t do that to me!” she whisper-shouted, flapping her hands at the radiologist, who was completely unperturbed and nibbling on her pizza whilst staring ahead. She was upset for two reasons: firstly, she hated being surprised in any way and secondly, if she did end up having a heart attack, she’d end up under the care of Sparkles, which would mean losing. Losing what, no-one knew but everyone on the row knew her thoughts and were staring ahead to avoid catching anyone else’s eyes and breaking. 

“Good afternoon everyone!” a voice boomed from the front and Mermista’s attention snapped back to the stage. Right, the Rounds presentation. That was a thing she was here for, not just for the soap opera car crash that was her friends. “And welcome to the Orthopaedic Grand Rounds! I see pizza was a good choice of catering!" 

Mermista could feel herself getting wound up over the presenter already and, given that her eyeliner was thicker than her patience on a good day, she could see herself punching him at some point. If they were ever on a list together, someone needed to be there for damage control only because there _would_ be fires, tears and hurt feelings abound. 

He began his presentation on the use of antibiotics for orthopaedic surgery and Mermista promptly tuned him out, focussing more on his stupid moustache and hair, both of which had been gelled into perfect waves and curves. His amber eyes were warm and hopeful and they made her want to punch him even more with their earnestness. 

She was beginning to think that Perfuma was on to something when she recommended anger management classes. 

By the time she’d resolved to at least look into some breathing exercises, the moustachioed surgeon had finished his presentation and was stepping down from the stage. In the brief moment he lifted his foot, their eyes met and his stupidly warm brown eyes widened as he saw her. His mouth dropped open beneath his stupid moustache and a frisson of glee ran through Mermista at the thought of her being able to cause such a reaction. 

The other thing that happened was that he missed his step and went tumbling down the remainder, crashing to the floor with a loud bang. His artfully styled hair was now a mess as he faceplanted onto the hardwood flooring. Mermista felt the vibrations from his fall through her chair and there was a brief moment of stunned, incredulous silence. 

Then Catra let out a cackle of laughter, followed by Glitter-Shimmer-Sparkles and the rest of the audience followed a beat behind. Perfuma was the only one polite enough not to laugh as she stood in an attempt to help him to his feet. 

Luckily, it seemed the only thing damaged was the man’s pride as he jumped back up, laughing at his own clumsiness with a loud guffaw. 

“Apologies all,” he crowed, as though he were an actor to a paying audience, “I just saw a beautiful siren who made me fall head over heels.” He said this completely seriously, swinging a hand over to the corner where Mermista and everyone was sitting. He locked eyes with her, dark eyes meeting and Mermista, despite her deadpan expression, flushed an impressive scarlet, the blush apparent even on her Indian skin. 

Catra seemed positively gleeful at this, like Christmas had come early, looking between Mermista and the man with a manic expression as her grin spread wider by the second. Mermista shuffled down in her seat attempting to disappear into the floor, begging mentally for the ground to swallow her whole. When she decided she wanted pizza and a show, she never said she wanted to star in it! 

Fortunately, one of the Neanderthals from orthopaedics grabbed the peacock and pulled him into a chair so the Rounds could continue. After that moment of excitement, besides “covert” looks back to her, the moustachioed man kept himself well behaved and Mermista slowly regained her natural skin tone. Though, she did rush to leave the lecture theatre as soon as the Rounds had finished so as to avoid meeting the man in the corridor. 

What would she even say in that situation? 

Reaching the sanctuary of her locker, she rested her head against the cool metal, resisting the urge to bang her forehead hard. Behind her, despite her closed eyes, she could see Catra grinning wickedly at her and heard her snickering. She was _never_ going to live this down and it wasn’t even _her_ embarrassing episode! 

Eventually, she regained her stony expression and made her way to her theatre for her afternoon session. Work, she could do this. She didn’t have to navigate social niceties when she was anaesthetising people and she could sit there for the duration of the case, mentally torturing herself over what to do. 

Sounded like fun. 

But, she was not that lucky. Clearly, all her luck had been used up on the pizza earlier and she was now in negative luck points because her surgeon for the afternoon sauntered in. 

And paused when he saw that she was his anaesthetist. 

His eyes lit up and his mouth curled into a genuine smile. He looked overjoyed at the sight of her and a small part of Mermista was happy that she could make someone’s day purely by being there, prickly personality and all. 

“Hello there, my siren,” he said, actually reaching forward to grab her hand like a sailor towards a princess. “My name is Christopher Hawkins, but call me Sea Hawk! May I know the name of the one who has gifted me with her presence?” 

And, even though Lonnie, the scrub nurse, was outright laughing behind her, even though she could still hear Catra’s snigger and even though she _knew_ she would never live this down for as long as she worked there, she decided to indulge him. A slow smile crossed her face, his own broadening even further at her response, and she said: 

“Mermista.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!
> 
> R&R
> 
> BYB x


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